Pulmonary surfactant: physiology, pharmacology and clinical uses.

The endogenous surfactant system in the lungs is complex. The synthetic, recycling and metabolic pathways are clear but the controlling mechanisms are not fully understood. Surfactant-specific proteins are important and their isolation and manufacture opens up new prospects for production of a synthetic surfactant with all the properties of natural human surfactant for therapy and prophylaxis of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome.